IFP News: Sales-tax sleight of hand in Iowa

IOWA CITY, Iowa (March 10, 2016) — Schools would lose revenue and Iowa voters’ intent would be distorted by new proposals on the state sales tax, according to a report from the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.

“This is the new sleight of hand in Iowa — pass a tax for one purpose, and then shift the way the money will be used. That’s what the Governor is proposing with his attempt to divert funding from the school infrastructure sales tax, and that’s only one example,” said Mike Owen, executive director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project and author of the report for the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.

“Another is a special sales-tax break for manufacturers that the Governor has set in place on his own, without legislative approval. This might change in current budget negotiations, but we likely would not be talking about it at all had the Governor not acted on his own.

“The precedents being set raise uncertainties for the future governance of our state.”

In the paper, Owen looks at a sales-tax break implemented unilaterally by the Branstad administration, as well as various proposals that would extend a state sales tax currently designated for school facilities and equipment — but only if shares of the funding are diverted to other purposes.

The Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) uses Department of Revenue data to project the Governor’s plan, now in the House as HF2382, would cause a loss of $426 million for school infrastructure from FY2017 through FY2029, when the current tax expires.

Schools would see a 20-year extension of the tax under the Governor’s plan, but would receive $4.7 billion less through FY2049 than under a straight 20-year extension of the sales tax for its currently defined use, according to IASB.

“That sales tax would not exist but for local votes across the state, for the revenues to go to school infrastructure, and secondarily to offset property taxes,” Owen said. “What the Governor and proposals in the Iowa House would do is to divert that funding to purposes never intended.

“They would do this in the near term, changing the rules of the current law set to expire in 2029, and they would do so in greater proportions over the following 20 years. Construction costs for schools will not be going down over that time.”

Proposals also would impose new restrictions on schools’ ability to spend the funds, and two would require voter approval by supermajority for even relatively small-scale construction projects, anything over $1 million.

“Once more, we see efforts to impose minority rule against efforts to improve our public infrastructure, to make it more difficult for school boards to do their jobs,” said Owen, who is serving his third term as an elected school board member in West Branch.